Formal discussant of the TAILOR trial, Benjamin J. Solomon, MBBS, PhD, of the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, East Melbourne, Australia, noted that the study asks an important question about the benefit of an EGFR inhibitor in patients with wild-type EGFR. The progression-free survival reported in this study is consistent with other studies, he continued, suggesting the benefit of chemotherapy in wild-type EGFR patients.

“The findings draw our attention to the fact that outcomes are poor with available treatments, with a median progression-free survival of 2 months,” said Dr. Solomon. “We need better treatments, but we need to use available treatments in the best way possible. Although we await the survival and quality-of-life analysis, these data suggest that outcome may be better with docetaxel than with an EGFR inhibitor in wild-type EGFR NSCLC. However, patients with wild-type EGFR are not a homogeneous population. They may have other actionable changes in their genome, such as ALK rearrangements, which may be identified through further testing.” ■

Disclosure: Dr. Solomon has been a consultant or advisor for AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Clovis Oncology, Lilly, Pfizer, and Roche.